Case Study Description

Discuss about the Business Intelligence in SMEs for Analytical Processing.

Business Intelligence is nothing but the umbrella term that refers to various applications of software utilized for analyzing the raw data of a particular organization (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2012). In other words, as a discipline, Business Intelligence is made up of various related services or activities such as the querying, reporting, online analytical processing as well as data mining (Luhn, 2014). This particular report has the prime aim to portray the fact how the business intelligence play a key role in the implementation of the business operations of especially the small and medium sized enterprises. Therefore, this report includes a case study on CapaBunga’s business operation with the help of which this report evaluates the successfulness of the product after the incorporation of the business intelligence solution in their business operations of the Bison Analytics. This report provides a brief overview of the entire case study made on CapaBunga. Therefore, this report also portrays the features of the QuickBooks accounting software package, with the help of which all the business operations of CapaBunga are performed. On the other hand, based on this case study, this report sheds light on the role or the impact of the business intelligence on the business operations of the small and medium organizations. Therefore, this study also focuses on the identification and the analysis of the consequences with the business intelligence in the businesss.es. However, at the end of this report, few important and effective recommending strategies have been briefly illustrated with the help of which the shortcomings of business intelligence can be addressed.

CapaBunga is a reusable cap made up of silicon that can reseal a wine bottle after the removal of the cork. Two winery owners invented CapaBunga in the wine country of Northern California (CapaBunga and the Bison System for QuickBooks Analytics, 2016). Máire Murphy and Walt Averill have taken their inspiration from the bungs those are utilized for sealing barrels at the time of making wine. This product has simplified the storage of wine in a great manner. However, the emphasis of CapaBunga on simplification didn’t end there.

CapaBunga is enjoying their enhancing growth. The products of this organization are catching on worldwide, along with France (CapaBunga and the Bison System for QuickBooks Analytics, 2016). It has brought about their next few significant as well as very crucial challenges such as managing the commission structure as well as managing the inventory items for their wide array of rep groups. Primarily, the only way through which, the organization was capable of getting this particular detail from QuickBooks was for spending many hours with the spreadsheets laboring for finding the exact data items as well as getting every data item into the proper field on their spreadsheets (CapaBunga and the Bison System for QuickBooks Analytics, 2016). Walt called on “Bison Analytics” for helping him for getting the information of management that he required from his QuickBooks file. The Bison System was quickly capable of giving Walt the analytics of QuivkBooks that he required for running his business of selling CapaBunga with the help of the extraction of the QuickBooks data with its industry-leading software. According to Walt, they have become much more now than the past days. They have received two custom reports of QuickBooks from the Bison Analytics (CapaBunga and the Bison System for QuickBooks Analytics, 2016). The first report can be capable of managing their inventory by separating the individual parts of inventory from the inventory assemblies so that they have a proper number of sales by state and by item. The second report is regarding their detailed summary of the commission for their industry reps.

Influence of QuickBooks in Business Intelligence

Walt has continued getting the proper data out of the QuickBooks is very difficult to do. The most important thing is that Bison System has considerably streamlined their work. They also know that the numbers are reliable as well as accurate with the help of this particular approach. Walt can be able to manipulate the information for viewing it anyway (CapaBunga and the Bison System for QuickBooks Analytics, 2016). He also wants to see it in his dashboards and reports. Therefore, it all runs on controlling cruise and he gets these important reports just the way he wants to see them every day.

The Chief Executive Officer or CEO of Bison Analytics, Kurt Steckel has noted the fact that the use of CapaBunga of the Bison System is precisely why they have implemented the system. On the other hand, with a few key indicators, a cookie-cutter would not support their explosive development. Bison Analytics have brought an entirely QuickBooks business intelligence solution as well as customizable QuickBooks Analytics to the developing businesses (CapaBunga and the Bison System for QuickBooks Analytics, 2016). Bison Analytics can enable the businesses for creating the proper reports that they require. The Bison System is actually in a distinct league. Therefore, they can unlock their data by permitting them for using their data however they would like. Thus, Walt has agreed with the point that, the Bison System is working very well and the people working with this system are easy for working with. He also considered that it is a great improvement for them over the tedious spreadsheets they were doing.

Many of the businesses utilize the accounting data in terms of creating financial statements for several business aspects. Therefore, the similar data have also been utilized for assessing the performance of the business of CapaBunga, monitoring trends as well as identifying scopes of improvement for the business operations of the organization (Anandarajan, Anandarajan & Srinivasan, 2012). These insights of business are very crucial in order to guide the fact-based decisions as well as the strategic thinking of the business activities of CapaBunga. The reporting app such as Fathom used by Bison Analytics can convert its QuickBokks online data into the useful business intelligence so that the business can see how well exactly the business of CapaBunga is performing as well as take action while required (Chaudhuri, Dayal & Narasayya, 2011). By connecting reporting app with the QuickBooks account of the business, Bison Analytics is capable of evaluating the growth, cash flow, profitability, revenue as well as the other key performance indicators for helping this business to become more profitable (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2012). The QuickBooks can provide the business an opportunity for gaining in-depth insights with the key performance indicators of the business activities or operations of CapaBunga. The Key Performance Indicator is the value that is can be measured for demonstrating the fact how an organization can effectively is achieving a major business objectives (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2012). Therefore, choosing the proper key performance indicators for a business depend on the industry as well as which part of the business the organization desire to improve (Cody et al., 2012). The financial KPIs can help the business of CapaBunga for assessing the financial health as well as performance of the business (Dhar & Stein, 2014). The key performance indicators often are grouped into categories such as growth, cash flow, efficiency, activity as well as profitability.

Importance of the implementation of Business Intelligence in Small and Medium Enterprises

On the other hand, the non-financial Key Performance Indicators are employed typically for measuring the common functions of business such as marketing as well as sales, staff information, operations, production and the customer service (Golfarelli, Rizzi & Cella, 2014). Therefore, the Key Performance Indicators should be reported as well as monitored to be effective and it can be done with the help of a reporting system of the QuickBooks file. The business can spot where the performance of the business requires improvement as well as take necessary steps of correcting the wrong business activity with the help of the reporting system of the QuickBooks file. Apart from that, the business of CapaBunga can drive few important aspects of the business in order to accomplish the business goals of the organization. The QuickBooks can simply help to set the boundaries, recognize the work-life balance, plan for the future business operations as well as consider other utilities as well (Howson & Hammond, 2014). The QuickBooks simply utilize the aspect of the business intelligence that BI can increase the inventory control for understanding the reason of investment in the business intelligence tools in inventory control.

Business Intelligence is nothing but the umbrella term that refers to various applications of software utilized for analyzing the raw data of a particular organization (Turban et al., 2013). In other words, as a discipline, Business Intelligence is made up of various related services or activities such as the querying, reporting, online analytical processing as well as data mining (Dhar & Stein, 2014). Therefore, the organizations utilize the Business Intelligence in terms of improving decision making process, cutting costs as well as identifying the opportunities of new business. Business Intelligence is more than just the corporate reporting as well as more that the set of numerous tools for coaxing data out of the enterprise systems (Golfarelli, Rizzi & Cella, 2014). CIOs utilize the Business Intelligence in terms of identifying the inefficient processes of business those are ripen for re-engineering.

The business folks can jump in as well as begin analyzing data themselves with the help of the Business tolls of today’s world rather than waiting for IT for running the reports of complex. The democratization of the access of information can help the users back up with the difficult numbers as well as the decisions regarding the business that would be based otherwise only on the gut feelings as well as ancedotes (Moss & Atre, 2013). Therefore, the Business Intelligence can hold great promise, implementations can also be dogged by the cultural as well as technical challenges. Executives have to assure that the data feeding applications of Business Intelligence is consistent as well as clean so that the users of the Business Intelligence can easily trust it (Chaudhuri, Dayal & Narasayya, 2011). For the Small as well as the Medium sized organizations, Business Intelligence can play a significant role in establishing their business processes.

The small as well as the medium size companies can represent the huge majority of all the organizations. These can make a contribution to the innovation, the creation of job as well as the economic growth of an organization (Vitt, Misner & Luckevich, 2012). Therefore, for the small and medium sized enterprises, the adoption of the solutions of the Business Intelligence has really become important in the today’s hyper-competitive markets where the companies are seeking for becoming more efficient, proactive as well as agile in the processes of making effective decisions for the development of the business processes of a particular organization (Cody et al., 2012). In the last few years, the necessity that has been implemented regarding the incorporation the solutions of IT in order to help in the process of making effective and significant decisions as well as the usage of the tools of Business Intelligence are identified by the most of the entrepreneurs. In today’s technological world, it has become clear that the information systems play a major role in order to enable the small and medium enterprises for becoming more competitive in the business world (Lönnqvist & Pirttimäki, 2016). The tools of business Intelligence can have numerous advantages for businesses with the emphasis increase in the communication among the users, ease of the access to information as well as the decrease in the process of information distribution (Anandarajan, Anandarajan & Srinivasan, 2012). On the other hand, the information is available in the real time, flexibility as well as versatility in order to adapt the reality of the organization and is helpful in the decision making process (Michalewicz et al., 2016). Moreover, the Business Intelligence can bridge several users as well as systems that have to access information by giving an environment that facilitates the access to information required for the regular activities and by doing that it allows the company for analyzing the performance of business.

The Business Intelligence can significantly drive the small as well as the medium organizations for attaining the tangible advantages such as the cost savings as well as ROI and the intangible benefits, which are just as important (Larson, 2015). In addition, the Business Intelligence can minimize the decision latency by integrating as well as consolidating information from several sectors, also can store this particular information is structured, which are easier for analyzing and accessing as well (Jourdan, Rainer & Marshall, 2014). The major or the top five intangible advantages recognized are the more efficient processes, improved decisions, better strategies as well as better information. An integrated as well as adequate Business Intelligence solution can implement the competitive advantage required for the small and medium enterprises to become successful. Moreover, the small and medium enterprises those have implemented already a Business Intelligence tool realized the fact that are now more capable of facing the competitive market environment as well as can more effectively compete (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2012). The successful businesses of the small and medium enterprises carefully manage the bottom line of the business and always are conscious about the business investment value. The companies require the robust planning tools in terms of becoming more competitive like business intelligence for deriving effective and accurate decisions regarding business. The small as well as the medium enterprises can also improve the key performance indicators and can also be more competitive as well as successful in the market (Anandarajan, Anandarajan & Srinivasan, 2012). These tools simply enhance the long term profitability as well as ensure that the crucial and important information is not overlooked and ignored. 

Along with the huge advantages, Business Intelligence has few challenges as well as shortcomings for the organizations in order to conduct their business operations in today’s rapidly growing business world (Howson & Hammond, 2014). The common challenges of the Business Intelligence highlight few interesting issues faced by the organizations while it comes to the production of the management reports.

Delivering the self-service analysis or reporting – One of the most crucial as well as significant issues with the conventional tools of business intelligence is that they are very complicated for using. Few individuals with an organization can only know how to operate the business intelligence tools (Isik Jones & Sidorova, 2013). The Bottlenecks can be formed around these major individuals as well as it can also slow down the entire process of reporting.

Analyzing or reporting across several systems – the second biggest as well as the most crucial challenge faced by the organization is reporting or analyzing across several systems. These days, most of the organizations have collected already a huge bulk of data surrounding the business activities or operations (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2012). The consequence is that this particular data is spread often over the various systems as well as software, which makes it hard for bringing together.

Process of unlocking data buried in systems – if an individual has the data in place already as well as he or she knows there it is, it doesn’t mean necessarily that it is accessible easily (Watson & Wixom, 2012). Getting at the information as per the requirement, it can become tremendously painful process while the data is actually buried in the complicated software as well as systems.

Reducing the production costs of reports – The costs can spiral out of control very easily, with the traditional projects of Business Intelligence (Liautaud & Hammond, 2015). The individuals need to fork out for all the ongoing support as well as maintenance costs along with these tools.

Derivation of the Mobile Business Intelligence – It is not surprising for seeing that there is a huge demand for the mobile business intelligence as the mobile devices are changing constantly (Turban, Sharda & Delen, 2011). The senior executives as well as the busy managers can be capable of accessing the insights they require while they require them, wherever, they are on the range of various devices.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusion

After the entire discussion made in this report it can be seen that the major effectiveness of the Business Intelligence is associated with the successful implementation of the business processes of various organizations especially the small and medium sized organizations. The Business Intelligence tools are becoming essential for the business activities of the organizations to be performed. Therefore, the shortcomings of the business intelligence solutions should be removed as well as overcome so that these tools can successfully implement the business operations of all the organizations all over the world. The important fact is that overcoming the shortcomings with the business intelligence can effectively help the small and medium sized enterprises to implement their business operations.

Delivering the self-service analysis or reporting – The businesses should make an investment in a self-service tool of business intelligence with the help of which the business can easily overcome the challenges delivering self-service analysis by proving power to those people who need it really.  The companies those democratize the utility of these tools over the business by making them more user friendly and by achieving a remarkably high ROI on their investments as an outcome.

Analyzing or reporting across several systems –

The businesses should exact data from these several sources as well as bringing these sources together into a centralized data warehouse can make it very easy for gaining reliable as well as quick insights.

Process of unlocking data buried in systems – The individuals in the business organizations should be capable of manipulating as well as transforming it into the correct shape very easily. Individuals can easily clean their data and can get it into the exact shape and apply any rules or calculations of business by utilizing an effective ETL process and a data warehouse.

Reducing the production costs of reports – There should a fixed prices set up fee with the cloud based Business Intelligence as well as all ongoing costs are should be covered under the price of the subscription made in a monthly basis.

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